Backdoor progressions

Here's another common non diatonic device used commonly in jazz to lead us back to our tonic chord. The backdoor progression or ii-V is a simple premise to implement and can add some really nice colour to harmonic progressions.

My Equipment:

Video chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Backdoor Dominant
00:43 Non-diatonic ii-Vs
02:03 Backdoor ii-V
03:15 Why does it work?
05:15 Dominant7 ❤️ Diminished 7
08:25 A little aside...
10:57 Modal Interchange
12:05 Backdoor use examples
16:13 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

[FractalFab]

Seriously, you have a gift for teaching. It's amazing how you can make everything look simple.

[Afiplaysmusic]

The Dominant seventh, Diminished seventh relationship is blowing my mind. lol. I've been playing with that one for a couple days.

[seanperkinsmusic]

Impressed that everytime you "beg the question", we immediately cut to you addressing it and giving us a moment, then seemlessly integrating the next level of understanding. 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿💥

[alainkempa]

I am a guitar player but I prefer a pianist like you explaining me these concepts. It's really a nice lesson.

[rubenchannel]

Honestly, I've been watching many YouTube channels and this is one of the best channels.
Amazing video.
Thanks for sharing it.

[moheimer]

Hi Michael, I cannot thank you enough for breaking things down well and - even for me - understandable and "usable" ... I really wish I found you years earlier ... because I often (still) struggle with "WHAT? ... HOW?" ... but with your explanationa analyses and "try it this or that way" some of the odd puzzle pieces fall into place ... 🥰

[ntdayo]

I keep wondering about the 'unique chords' and progression. My intention tells me the resolving chord are mostly half-tone apart from the 'unique chords' aka backdoor.
Thanks to your video Mic. It clears my mind especially the theory who i have been wondering about. 10/10 really guide me! For sure i buy you a coffee!

[lucasfabisiak]

My guess regarding why the E7 to C isn't as strong of a cadence as the others is because the third of C (which is E) is what gives the chord its color, so its presence in the previous chord makes it more similar to it than the others (less tension prior to the resolution). That's perhaps also why the dominant third (in this case, E7), especially with a #9, can even be used as a substitution for the I chord in, for example, a I vi ii V progression. So, instead of C Am7 Dm7 G7, you get E7#9 Am7 Dm7 G7, which sounds quite cool.

[barrycoulter]

Wow.. didnt realize diminished chords really put in the work!

[michaelemberson]

I've been studying music (in my own time) best part of 30 years, and composing and arranging for at least 20 of them. The last 4 years has been devoted to Jazz arrangements and I can't believe I've only just come across the back door ii - V. You have just added another level to my toolbox. I've also found that some of your other videos have give me a deeper understanding on some of the other tools I already use. Keep up the efforts on educating those of us that study music in our own time.
I shall certainly be buying you a coffee kind sir. 😁

[Steeyuv]

Part of the fun of watching and listening to your excellent videos is watching the 'like' count keep building as it plays.

[NickWeissMusic]

A little tangent on the diminished talk: the vii dim7 chord is interchangeable with the V7b9 chord. Exactly the same chord, with a V note in the bass. Conversely, if you play a V7b9 chord and delete the root, you’re left with vii diminished 7. E.g., G7b9 without a root is Bdim7. That B diminished chord sounds cool over G7b9 and is easily repeatable.And the half whole diminished scale starting from the V note sounds really good, and it’s also fairly easy to play over this sound. Literally half note, whole note until you hit the octave and it starts over. For a G7 leading to C, it’s G, Ab, Bb, B, C#, D and so on. Yes it has 8 notes if you’re finding that confusing lol, I certainly did at first. You only need to learn 3 of them because the pattern starts over once you’ve gotten to the minor 3rd.

Here’s a very practical way to think of half whole diminished: take the vi dim 7 chord, which is 4 notes, and give every note a half step leading tone below it. That’s the 8 note scale. If you use these chromatic leading tones to the chord tones of vii dim7 and mix it up a bit, you sound like Stan Getz, ta da! Dominant b9 is a bebop staple especially in any V dominant chord leading to minor 1. Half whole diminished is kind of a dark bebop dominant scale to me, with very little to remember ;) .

Btw, vii dim 7 naturally leads up a half step to minor 1, not major, it’s just a darker version of V7 to 1 minor, used often in classical harmonic minor music.

You can absolutely use V7b9 (or vii dim 7, again, same basic chord) to major 1, but that’s the kind of thing the band’s going to want to agree on, not exactly interchangeable sounds. In other words, you don’t always want dark V7b9 chords leading to major 1’s, as it’s nice to have simple major sounds to contrast with dark, more complex minor sounds.

Learning to use diminished chords is weird but useful, and all the greats use it. It’s generally easy to do physically, or at least, it’s only 3 patterns to learn on any instrument.

Diminished is its own thing, man, but it’s in the dominant family. That’s why a lot of people don’t like calling minor7b5 chords “half diminished.”They’re minor family chords, they don’t normally act as dominant. They’re not “diminished” at all, they’re just dark minor chords. Their function is subdominant, not dominant.

That’s a lot of nerding there but I’m stuck on a plane, whattyagonnado.

[matthewisaac]

This may be the single most interesting video on music theory that I've ever come across on youtube! Mind blown honestly 🤯 One question: is it common to use backdoor 2-5s and tritone sub 2-5s in sort of a secondary dominant fashion to lead to chords that aren't the 1 chord?

[gusslx]

Just clicked and straight to the good stuff. No annoying intros or early self advertising. New sub here! Thanks for your hard work!

[MrYadaization]

10:30 I wondered this exact thing when I first learned about the diminished chord. It's a nice sound! I suppose the movement by a third is just too weak to make the dominant do its job effectively.

[chrisdurhammusicchannel]

Question at 10:34. E7b9 resolves so strongly to the relative minor (A) that going to C sounds weak. Using Bm7b5 to E7b9 makes the resolution in C stronger. But in my opinion, the root movement of a downward third doesn't sound very strong as a resolution. For some reason, when I hear the III chord, I expect to go away from the tonic, resolving to the tonic sounds kind of like giving up, just when the adventure starts!
Great video, Michael!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[carbonmonoxide]

A couple things on the III7 - I resolution:

Something very close to this resolution is found in the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto in C Major. In the third movement, there is a chain of these resolutions that marks a large cadence. The actual chords are F/D# C#m/E Am (and it’s later repeated up a minor third). While it is technically just a chromatic mediant resolution, it feels like a dominant and is treated like a dominant, clearly making it a substitution (the E in the bass helps a lot with this). The F/D# chord before it is a Ger6 in Am (and Ger6s are just tritone substitutions of II7 or V/V), but it also acts as the III7 of C#m.

Since we have only have three diminished chords, C (Class 1), C# (Class 2), and D (Class 3), we can then analyze everything in relation to them. A dominant built on a note in Class 1 will include or imply the Class 2 diminished chord and resolve to a chord built on a note in Class 3.

To connect this to the 2-5 and backdoor 2-5 (and other 2-5 variations), any chord built on a Class 2 will have subdominant function leading to a dominant function chord built on a Class 1 note, which will resolve to a chord built on a Class 3 note. In other words, in any given key, there are actually 8 tonic chords, 8 dominant chords, and 8 subdominant chords, although most music tends to limit focus to only a few of those tonic chords at a time (ex: modal interchange focuses on the relation of C to Cm, using the relative minor focuses on the relation of C to Am, and classical pieces in Cm often end their expositions in Eb).

[bassomatic]

As a bass player/composer that doesn't play keys and solely mucks around with midi, this is gold.

[jamesmitchell]

I feel like the best way to explain why the flat seven dominant works is because it’s really a minor plagal cadence. Borrowing from a parallel minor gives you plenty of harmonic nuance.

[dannyprasetya]

Just woke up and having my coffee when your video came out. Ngl, I got “wait, what?!?” moments. A lot. 🤣🤣
Thank you for sharing the knowledge man. Cheers